PORTLAND, Ore. — Neighbors and community members have been helping spread awareness on social media about a stolen truck from Red Sauce Pizza in the Beaumont-Wilshire neighborhood.
"This truck has a lot of sentimental value to me. It's a stick shift but you drive on the right hand side and you have to be very coordinated to drive it — It's good advertising and we use it for catering,” said owner Shardell Dues.
Shardell founded Red Sauce Pizza in 2015. The truck is a mascot for the establishment.
"We're a unique business and it's a unique vehicle,” she said.
She discovered the truck was missing and noticed the ignition was drilled out Sunday morning. The vehicle was last parked on Northeast Fremont Street near the shop.
Three months prior, the black truck-bed toolbox in the back of the same truck was also stolen.
"It 's really frustrating to realize that my car is gone because it's just another thing I have to deal with on top of a lot of other vandalism that we've experienced in the last six months," said Dues. "I'm just hoping that if it is recovered that it's in someway salvageable, but I'm not keeping any hope for that."
The owner of the pizza joint made a post Sunday morning on social media in hopes of anyone spotting the vehicle around town.
The white truck is a Japanese import. There is no VIN but it's a 1991 Honda. The license plate is AZZIP — pizza spelled backwards — another unique identifying marker.
"It's probably worth about $6,000 to $7,000. Despite the money, things can be replaced. It's such a unique truck — replacing parts that are damaged is not gonna be possible,” she said.
"If they needed it to sell for money and buy food. I'd say come here and I'll give you a free pizza instead of stealing my vehicle. I don't know the position that there are in and obviously people are struggling. That's why the crime rate is up because mental health, and just the support from our city. I don't think I would say anything to them, to be honest,” said Dues.
Shardell is asking anyone who knows anything or spots the vehicle to please contact police.
